Which to use
“illegal” and “illégaux” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #49,712
- “illegal” frequency rank
- #14,055
- “illégaux” frequency rank
- 63767
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | illegal | illégaux |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Illégal. | Masculin pluriel de illégal. |
Where the eye mixes illegal and illégaux
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 5 letters in sequence. illegal runs 7 letters (VCCVCVC) against illégaux's 8 (VCCVCVVC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.
Look-alike desk: illegal vs illégaux
A purely visual mix-up. illegal (\ˈɪleɡaːl\) and illégaux (\i.le.ɡo\) are said differently, so reading them aloud is the quickest way to catch the wrong one. On the page they stay close: they differ by 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 63767, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
illegal is recorded at frequency rank #49,712, classified as anadj, pronounced \ˈɪleɡaːl\. illégaux is at rank #14,055, tagged as anadj, pronounced \i.le.ɡo\.
Glosses for this pair are partially populated in our dataset, but the full side-by-side definitions above should still guide you to the right choice.
With a confusion score of 63767, this pair ranks #80,313 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.
Orthographic DNA of illegal vs illégaux
Shared letters: agil. Private to "illegal": e. Private to "illégaux": uxé.
"illegal" · 7 letters · shape VCCVCVC · "illégaux" · 8 letters · shape VCCVCVVC
Known mistypes of this pair
- illegal ← ilegal · ilelgal · illeagl · illegall · illeggal · illegla · illgeal · lilegal
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "illegal" for "illégaux" ever safe?
In ordinary French text, does "illegal" or "illégaux" show up more?
What to do next
Visual near-miss handled. Browse the word pages or a neighbour when the next look-alike shows up.
- Full dictionary entry for "illegal" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "illégaux" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #80,313 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "illegal" and "illégaux" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "illegal vs inégal". Nearby pair
- Recorded mistypes exist for at least one side of this pair, useful when a spell-checker or OCR lands on the wrong form. See mistypes
Confusion rank #80,313 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.